Immediately after the death/sucide of Jeremy Blake was announced there was a spike in readers brought to the blog by search terms such as “buy jeremy blake”, “buy blake prints”, “jeremy blake prices” etc.
At cocktail parties I’ve heard from amateur specullectors that an artists’ death is the easiest way for their art collections to appreciate. While basic Keynesian theory supports that, it’s not always the case. Thus, the following information may be disappointing to some, but I promise it is true and common practice:
Jeremy Blake, whose suicide last summer was all but incomprehensible to the career-obsessed art world, has had his beautifully mounted retrospective homage at Kinz, Tillou and Feigen Gallery [his dealers] … Fans may be slightly daunted however by the fact Blake did not often sign his digital prints, they have no edition number and, choicest of all, there are no actual, vulgar prices given for any works. Instead you have to leave your name and contacts and wait to see if you are deemed suitable. It’s an elegant system that keeps collectors on tenterhooks.
Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You by Adrian Dannatt – The Art Newspaper, Jan 08, p. 36
Luckily there is still a way to enjoy Blake’s work where right of entry does not rely on pedigree or contacts. Check out Wild Choir: Cinematic Portraits by Jeremy Blake at the Corcoran Gallery of Art through March 2nd.
Jeremy Blake, Working still from Glitterbest, 2006, digital video and sound (Courtesy Kinz, Tillou + Feigen, New York)
